Cooking devices such as crock pots and the like with side and bottom heating elements are known.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,138,706 discloses side and bottom heating elements connected in series and thus only controllable together. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,515,262 and 6,624,392 have side and bottom heaters connected in parallel and thus a switch can be used to turn them both on, both off, or on individually. U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,733 discloses, as best can be ascertained, an input switch for switching between the side and bottom heating elements.
Switching between the heating elements and/or running them simultaneously can be confusing to the user. In some devices, the bottom heating element is slow to provide heat and/or does not provide sufficient heat for searing meat or the like.